Transcendent, brutally honest and with the wildly dangerous, alluring charm of real life, True Confessions of a Heartless Girl is a book like no other. Noreen has always been troubled by the tense atmosphere of her home where there is an alcoholic mother, an abusive stepfather and a stepsister who always wants to get away. When, at last, Noreen reaches seventeen, she does what’s been expertly demonstrated in her household: she runs from the conflict. When she finds herself with a man who loves her, she can’t understand it and even more so when she finds herself pregnant with his child. So she does what she’s always done best: she runs. However, this time, she’s detoured by a strong Manitoba storm into the small and isolated town of Pembina Lake. Here, she must not only confront and deal with what she’s run from, but she must also recognize that her actions can be responsible for another’s future, that she cannot simply run away from everything.
Martha Brooks, the author of this intensely emotional and award-winning novella, has created an endearing and heartfelt narrative. The book is clearly character-driven, which makes for well-written and realistic characters. Brooks is not reluctant to demonstrate each character’s flaws. The intertwining of the characters’ separate plot lines shows expertise on Brooks’ part and, furthermore, creates a somehow appealing story that all comes down to life situations that are typically downplayed. Brooks’ forward prose undoubtedly — and aptly — exposes these situations of death, self-loathing and anxiety for what they really are.
Despite the fact the title may allude to a first-person narration or center around Noreen’s problems, such is not the case. In fact, the entire novel tends to focus on specific citizens of Pembina Lake and how each one has an effect on the other. Brooks chose to write in omniscient, which grants an easy way to present everyone’s side to things, their worries, their fears, their loves and hates. In this way, the reader learns that Pembina Lake is not the perfect little community it seems at first and that each hero and heroine has reasoning behind their words and actions. On the contrary, the narrative, in all its stunning simplicity, sometimes became convoluted in its meaning or bewildering with the pronouns. Nevertheless, Brooks, right from the beginning, establishes rule and a clear, insightful voice.
True Confessions of a Heartless Girl is a book that I would highly recommend to someone who appreciates a blatantly brilliant, yet simple, narrative, rich in life’s love, loss, hate and joy. It is a true novel, personally, to be read by not only teenagers, but adults as well, both male and female. Anyone is sure to enjoy this novel, laughing, crying — maybe both.
Martha Brooks has deftly fabricated a novel of frank eloquence, one that manages to target, I feel, all aspects of life. True Confessions of a Heartless Girl is a book of quiet intensity, strong voice and passionate prose. Superb.
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Points: 18486
Reviews: 522